hello. i'm john berman. >> i'm kate bolduan. happening right now, speaker paul ryan is holding a conference call with house republicans which could determine if they stay or if they go when it comes to donald trump. will more members of his party including the speaker, maybe even himself, decide to drop donald trump? it is amazing that this discussion is even happening 30 days out from this election. as you know, some two dozen republicans have already pulled their support and several have now called on donald trump to drop out of the race. this followed the release of the 2005 "access hollywood" tape in which donald trump is heard bragging about groping women. language that he dismissed during last night's debate as locker room talk. >> let's go to our senior

political reporter, manu raju, who covers capitol hill. he has been monitoring house republicans all morning. do you know where your house speaker is? what do you think is going to happen on this call that should be under way? >> reporter: they are probably just getting started right now. what we are hearing this morning talking to republican officials and sources, they are telling me they are expecting the republican leadership to mostly stay behind, stick behind donald trump. that means including paul ryan, the house speaker. i'm told by ryan official that there's been no change in paul ryan's position at this time so what that means is that he is still supporting donald trump so of course, that's very significant after that very public rebuke on saturday when paul ryan disinvited donald trump from coming to a unity rally in wisconsin and after donald trump, of course that videotape with very crude

comments about him bragging about groping women, really putting his party on the defensive and prompting a mass revolt among a lot of republicans. what has put the republican leadership in a difficult spot, particularly on the house side, is a lot of these members are from districts with a lot of trump supporters so it's very difficult for the republican leadership per se to completely abandon their nominee when their own conference, their members were running for re-election and need the trump supporters in the fall. so there's also, i'm told, some people are a little more relieved after last night's debate performance. they believe it shifted the narrative away from the videotape from over the weekend and perhaps rallied the base as well. that makes it much harder for republican leaders to go against their base, especially if they are energized following donald trump's debate performance. right now, paul ryan sticking with donald trump. >> did you expect paul ryan to come out and say with actual out loud words at any point today

that he is still planning to vote for donald trump? >> reporter: no guidance on that yet, john and kate. what will be very interesting to see is the message that he delivers to his conference internally. we will be reporting on that throughout this hour. how much does he say, you know, we need to stick together or we need to get behind donald trump, or does he equivocate at all. for the last several weeks, he's been talking about unified republican government, pushing for party unification. is that still his message? or is it going to be an anti-hillary clinton message saying we can't have hillary clinton as president, donald trump is our only choice. he had been saying that for weeks, too, saying this is a binary choice. does he still say that? it will be interesting to hear him say that but for right now, i think there's a feeling that if there was a time to dump donald trump, that would have been saturday in the aftermath of that videotape release and when all the other republicans were jumping ship. right now, the narrative seems to have shifted a little bit,

putting the republican leadership in a more difficult spot. >> seems it shifts with every release of every little new tidbit. we'll see how it shifts again. let's hear exactly what comes out of this conference call. manu, thanks. >> keep us posted. get to the iphone and see what you can find out. we know at least one republican who is standing by donald trump right now. his running mate is standing by him. mike pence told cnn a short time ago that trump expressed genuine remorse, he thought, for what pence calls offensive language. mike pence also says it's absolutely false that he ever considered withdrawing from the ticket. >> cnn's phil mattingly is live in washington with much more on this. the fact that it is news that the running mate is sticking with the presidential candidate, that's pretty amazing. >> reporter: yeah, if your baseline for victory after the debate is your running mate did not decide to jump off the ticket, last night was clearly a rousing success for the trump campaign. but seriously, if you look at kind of manu was laying this out well, where republicans are today compared to where they were 48 hours ago, 24 hours ago,

there's a feeling certainly within the trump campaign that they are in a much better place and they believe the accusations, the allegations, the hot mic moment itself has been asked and answered and it's time to move on. here's what mike pence said in that interview with cnn. >> i was offended by them. i said i couldn't defend them and encouraged donald trump to continue to express his genuine remorse. i think last night he showed his heart to the american people. he said he apologized to his family, apologized to the american people, that he was embarrassed by it, then he moved on to the real choice in this election which is really not just a choice between two candidates. it's a choice between two futures. >> guys, that's the message you have been hearing from trump surrogates repeatedly over the course of the last 12 hours. donald trump is the new hillary clinton is the old. donald trump is the anti-establishment, clinton is the establishment. it's a message they feel like can work. now, the big issue, though, we have heard this a lot from clinton advisers, in the wake of

last night's debate while they might have steadied donald trump within the party or at least staunched the flow of defections, did that actually win him any votes. was it great for republican primary voters, was it great for riling up the base? no question about it. is it great for the suburbs of denver, for the suburbs of columbus, not so much. that's kind of how both campaigns are spinning this. i do think there's one really important point here. it's clear that republicans are a little bit more comfortable after last night's debate but if you think in talking to clinton advisers that team clinton is going to let that hot mic moment off the shelf any time soon, or if you think that they are not searching for more of these types of issues to come out in the days ahead, you are going to be sadly mistaken. i think that, even as people get a little more comfortable, is the underlying concern that sticks with every single republican. guys? >> all right. phil mattingly, thanks so much. want to bring in the panel to discuss. cnn political director david chalian, senior political reporter nia-malika henderson

and david fahrenthold, who broke the story of the trump tape. that sort of changed things when that came out. thanks for being with us. david, let me start with you. pence not leaving the ticket. also a piano did not fall on donald trump's head during the debate yesterday in st. louis. does that constitute the victory the trump campaign says it does? >> no. john, it really doesn't. listen, if you are 29 days away from an election and talking about your running mate has announced he's staying with you and that you are stopping defections from you, that's not a place you want to be 29 days out from a campaign. you got to step back and remember, donald trump was already in a downward trajectory. he was behind in this race before the story broke on friday that david broke, and then obviously that sent him into a tailspin. last night, he chose a very clear strategy. scorch the earth, get all of his supporters riled up again, put that floor underneath him so he

doesn't go down any further, but he didn't do anything that i can see that is going to add voters to his coalition which means he's still behind in this race. that's the tricky spot, this day after the debate for the trump campaign. >> nia, one of the things donald trump had to address last night was the tape, and when asked about it this is how he addressed it. >> i apologized to my family, i apologized to the american people. certainly i'm not proud of it. but this is locker room talk. >> this is locker room talk and that's how he explained it several times in talking about it. how is that playing? >> you know, it's playing fine with his base and those voters that david talked about who already like him and are already going to vote for him but it likely won't play well with a lot of republican women, a lot of republican-leaning independents in those suburbs. those are the people he needs. if you look at some of the reactions to the debate, it was

women, right, who thought that hillary clinton won. it was women in some of the focus groups who still don't think that dismissive answer about those very troubling revelations on that tape with donald trump saying that his power gives him access to kiss women and to grope them, that is going to be i think continuously damaging to the trump campaign. it's not going to help him on his efforts to win voters in the swing states, in the suburban areas, college educated white women we keep talking about. it's also college educated white men who are troubled by that. i was talking to someone earlier who was saying that he had to have discussions with his children about this. what does this mean about what donald trump is saying and you know, a lot of embarrassment around donald trump's talk there. so dismissing it as locker room talk, i don't think donald trump has spent much time in locker rooms. you have athletes coming out and saying don't malign us by suggesting that in locker rooms, we are talking about sexual

assault against women. it's not going to help him with this answer. and i think there's this continuing specter of more revelations and more tapes coming out involving donald trump saying things like this. >> so david fahrenthold, one way donald trump also was dealing with this is turning it on bill clinton. last night, he did bring up bill clinton's past sexual indiscretions and those who accuse him of such things and sat in the audience four people, including three women who have accused bill clinton of various things. your paper reporting that the trump campaign actually wanted to sit them up front in the vip area. the debate commission would not let that happen. but mike pence was talking about it today. this is now a thing. when even mike pence is bringing up bill clinton's past here, is this here to stay now until november? >> it seems like it is. it seems like this is what they have settled on as both a reaction to that videotape and also as a strategy going

forward, to focus the attention on these cases that involve bill clinton in three cases and one case involving a legal case where hillary clinton served as -- was appointed to be a lawyer for somebody accused of rape. they want that to be front and center, literally front and center last night. i think they decided to make that case. the interesting thing to me is i think a lot of americans don't really know much about these cases and the way the trump people present them, assumes that they do. they don't really even try to give the back story for who these people are. which i think is maybe not the best way to even play that strategy. >> david, once you have gone there, once you have gone there bringing accusers to the debate, trying to get them in the family box, the family vip section, what else is there? where else can you go? >> it's a good question. >> listen -- sorry. >> sorry, david. >> wrong david. >> kate, i think it's pretty clear that it seemed to me donald trump kind of threw his hands up last night and said i'm

no longer playing to win, almost. by going down this strategy, i don't think it is going to be very easy to turn back here. as phil mattingly was saying, and all of a sudden make appeals to the suburbs of denver and suburbs of philadelphia. once you go here, you are all in on the base. so then it's just a matter, remember, in the republican primaries the thing that voters loved the most about him, he tells it like it is, he takes the fight to hillary clinton. that is something that will animate the folks with him so he's clearly heading down that path. i don't see how you turn back from that in a convincing way 29 days to go. >> so nia, hillary clinton, a lot of people are saying she did not deliver a knockout blow. she had an opportunity to crush trump last night, that didn't happen. other people are saying there are issues where she actually maybe fumbled the answers a little bit. one of them had to do with the wikileaks and the suggestion that she said at one point that you need to have a public and a private position on some issues.

in fact, when she was making that statement, she was talking about the movie "lincoln" but this is how she explained it last night. >> is it acceptable for a politician to have a private stance on issues, secretary clinton? >> right. as i recall, that was something i said about abraham lincoln -- >> now she's blaming the lie on the late great abraham lincoln. that's one that i haven't -- honest abe never lied. that's the good thing. that's the big difference between abraham lincoln and you. that's a big big difference, we're talking about some difference. >> so who won that moment? is this something that hillary clinton needs to be careful with going forward? >> you know, i talked to somebody in the clinton campaign about this. they feel like she was telling the truth in that answer. they also feel like in terms of the wikileaks in her speeches, that the worst is out there because i asked, i was like does

this sort of put a burden on you to release more of this and to prove that she was talking about abraham lincoln, and they said they feel like the worst is out there. it was a funny response. it was clearly enjoyed by the audience. trump's a very quick rejoinder to that. you wonder if you will hear hillary clinton mention abraham lincoln again in this. the late great abraham lincoln, i should say. >> yeah. let's see if that response happens again. that will be telling. great to see you, guys. thank you so much. one of the many astonishing moments from last night, donald trump very publicly disagreeing with his running mate on a critical national security issue. syria. what the campaign is saying now about that. plus, it was another one of the remarkable moments of the night. you can see here how the "new york post" played it. donald trump threatening to throw hillary clinton behind bars if he wins the election. we'll discuss.

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the fury in missouri. donald trump wanted a full encensored attack mode. >> we have seen him insult women, embarrass women. this is who donald trump is. >> there has never been so many

lies, so much deception. >> it's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of donald trump is not in charge of the law in our country. >> because you would be in jail. >> name one positive thing that you respect in one another. >> donald trump debating hillary clinton last night and mike pence, at least when it comes to policy in syria. donald trump saying he and his running mate had not spoken about how to stop the humanitarian crisis in aleppo and that he disagrees with mike pence's idea about using military force. but just a short time ago on cnn, governor pence said he had talked to trump about their policy and he disputes how the moderator framed the question. >> the question i had and you can check the transcript, so can your viewers, was about the humanitarian crisis in aleppo and what we ought to do. donald trump's position, our position has been that we need to establish safe zones and you

need to be willing to use -- you need to be willing to use resources and including military power to secure those safe zones. >> joining us now to take a closer look at this is former cia director james woolsey, national security adviser to the donald trump campaign. great to have you on. thank you so much. >> good to be with you. >> thank you. so as it stands as the national security adviser to the trump campaign, what is the trump campaign's position on syria, on stopping the humanitarian crisis in aleppo? >> i'm not the one to ask for policy decisions. that's the candidate. but i do think the safe zone approach given the circumstances we're in now is one of the only courses of action left to us. the problem really i think is jn rat generated by president obama's decision to draw a red line and tell the syrian government that

they could not cross it and what that meant was they couldn't use chemical weapons against their own people. they went right ahead and did it and the united states shrugged and handed the problem over to russia. >> director -- >> we as a result are not being considered seriously in that part of the world. >> i'm a little perplexed by your statement here. do you not know what the policy of the campaign is when it comes to using force? >> i'm going to let the candidates themselves communicate the policy to the public, not me. >> are you confused by the differences between the two? let's play it for our viewers so we can all discuss it. here is where the confusion lies. mike pence was asked about what to do about syria and the humanitarian crisis in aleppo during the vp debate. this is what he said. >> the provocations by russia need to be met with american strength and if russia chooses to be involved and continue, i should say, to be involved in this barbaric attack on

civilians in aleppo, the united states of america should be prepared to use military force to strike military targets of the assad regime, to prevent them from this humanitarian crisis that is taking place in aleppo. >> and then donald trump was asked the exact same question in last night's debate. listen. >> what would you do about syria and the humanitarian crisis in aleppo, and i want to remind you what your running mate said. he said provocations by russia need to be met with american strength and that if russia continues to be involved in air strikes along with the syrian government forces of assad, the united states of america should be prepared to use military force to strike the military targets of the assad regime. >> okay. he and i haven't spoken and i disagree. i disagree. >> where is this disagreement? >> that's for the candidates to

sort out. i'm an adviser. i'm not going to sort out the politics and decision making for you. i will be glad to tell you what i think the advantages and disadvantages are of various courses of action. >> do you agree with mike pence or donald trump on this? >> i'm not going to put a stake in the ground on behalf of one or the other or an intermediate position. i'm going to tell you what i think would be wise. i have been trying to do that for a couple minutes here but you seem to want to get me into politics which is not my field. >> mr. director, but you are james woolsey, former cia director, national security adviser to the donald trump campaign. when it comes to a key policy position that you would assume would be a unified position of the campaign, i would also assume you would know what it is and be able to voice it. >> i'm not telling you one way or the other. the candidates are the ones who are going to communicate the policy decisions to the public,

not me. >> why does it make you uncomfortable? >> it doesn't necessarily make me uncomfortable. i'm just refusing to do it. i think they're the ones who are running for office. they are the ones who ought to create the doctrine and the policies and shape them the way they want. not an adviser. >> one other question while we have you here. what was your reaction when you heard the "access hollywood" tape where donald trump was bragging about being able to grab women's genitalia and get away with it because he was famous? >> i work on national security matters. i have worked for four presidents, two republicans, two democrats, on national security matters of all kinds, counter terrorism, size of the military, the navy, arms control. that's what i do. i don't assess what's going on politically in the campaign. that's not my position. >> i'm not sure that's a political question. >> yeah, it is as far as i'm concerned. it's very political.

i'm not going to get into politics. i'm going to talk about substance. if you don't want me to talk about substance then don't in voit viet me on your show. >> i was trying to ask you about substance on syria and you did not want to articulate a position. >> you want to talk politics and judgments. that's not what i'm here to do. >> what is the campaign's plan on stopping the humanitarian crisis in syria? >> i'm not going to take a position. i will tell you if you want me to what i think the pros and cons are of various courses of action with respect to syria, russia and where the problem came from and the substance but i'm not going to talk the politics. >> all right. director, thanks for being with us. >> thank for coming on. >> good-bye. coming up. >> what could be more stunning than donald trump's pregame photo with bill clinton's accusers? well, if they were actually seated in the vip box, hear why the trump campaign is livid this morning after apparently nearly making it happen.

plus he's refused to release them the entire election but did donald trump last night make a pretty big admission about his tax returns? what he said and whether it matters to voters listening in. we'll be right back. is it a professor who never stops being a student? is it a caregiver determined to take care of her own? or is it a lifetime of work that blazes the path to your passions?

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>> reporter: yeah, we do have some big news. paul ryan saying he's done defending donald trump, saying that on a conference call with republican members just now, i want to read you some notes from someone who was on the call sending me an e-mail about how it went down. the speaker and republican leaders want to talk about the political landscape. what they wanted to focus on is they will only worry about the house republican majority going forward. they believe that's where they want to spend all their energy for the next month, not on helping donald trump. they are saying the speaker told republican members quote, you all need to do what's best for you in your district. that means that if you need to abandon donald trump, you should abandon donald trump. if you need to run with donald trump, run with donald trump. but what the speaker said very clearly, that he will not defend trump or the campaign or donald trump's campaign for the next month. he also said that his entire

energy is going to be focused on trying to keep the republican majority. why? because he wants it to be a check on a democratic administration. he said that he does not want to give a blank check to a democratic-controlled white house, democratic-controlled congress or hillary clinton administration. so that could be interpreted in some ways as throwing in the towel, saying that donald trump has no chance of winning so we need to worry about ensuring that if hillary clinton does win which it looks like she may, we have a republican house to prevent her from doing whatever she wants. so he made it very clear that he is just trying to keep the house republican majority. now, one thing that is not clear right now is whether or not he revoked his endorsement of donald trump. we were told going into this from ryan officials that he was not going to change his position at this time about endorsing and supporting donald trump. so we are not -- it's not clear yet whether or not his own personal, he still plans on

voting for donald trump in the fall. he's making a political decision that it's time for his party and his party's leadership to worry exclusively on the congressional majorities, those down ticket races, because simply, at the end of the day they can't defend all the things donald trump has been saying. >> say the word endorsement or non-endorsement or not, that sounds like exactly what we are looking at here in what he's described to members of the house. manu, thank you so much. that call i believe is still going on. let's discuss this. joining us, john j.leval, regional vice chairman of the new york state republican party and donald trump supporter. crystal ball, senior fellow at a group that recruits progressive candidates and hillary clinton supporter. david brock, founder of the pro-clinton super pac correct the record and scottie nell hughes, donald trump supporter. i have notes from someone on the call as well, very similar to what manu had, he's not going to defend donald trump or cam tan

wi -- campaign with him for the next 30 days. that's not showing report. what i hear, that's paul ryan saying it's over. >> i think that's a complete misinterpretation of what the speaker is talking about. he's the speaker of the house of representatives. obviously they will keep the majority and he's got a lot of members in tight districts. he's saying he's focusing on those individuals like in the senate mcconnell will focus there. i think it's a little bit of an exaggeration. what he sees -- >> he's not going to campaign with donald trump for the next 30 days. >> even more, i'm sorry, i'm not sure what the other interpretation is of i want to spend my entire energy making sure that hillary clinton does not get a blank check. the only way hillary clinton gets a check of any kind is if she's president. that definitionally seems that paul ryan is assuming a hillary clinton presidency. >> the frustration that someone like paul ryan will have or mitch mcconnell is that they see what the issues are. they see the democrats have failed on the economy. they see that the democrats are not making us safer.

but they see the media only talking about dirt, not talking about the real issues in this race, and the real issues that are going to move americans -- >> i'm sorry, who called the press conference with bill clinton's accusers last night and brought up that dirt? i just want to say one thing. >> it's a response to her dirt. >> there's an important point to be made here. paul ryan is speaker of the house. the house is supposed to be lock solid for republicans and he is now so worried about the donald trump campaign that he is worried about the majority in the house. we're not even talking about the senate anymore. so to the extent that republicans were cheered at all by donald trump's performance last night, they are not thinking this man can win. they are thinking maybe we can keep it to six points instead of double digits here and paul ryan has basically -- this is unprecedented. it's really remarkable. >> scottie, help out john here. >> first, paul ryan ever defended donald trump? we heard the first -- he has had no help. if we have seen --

>> he was supposed to campaign with him this weekend. >> when he went there and donald trump wasn't there he got booed. there has been a large disconnect between washington, d.c. and the people. these campaigns this year is all about being the anti-establishment, anti-status quo, something that paul ryan represents. this does no damage to donald trump. if anything, this actually helps. thank you, paul ryan, if you are not going to help us, good luck. i think mr. trump is going to need a solid house. as you learned by tim huelskamp, who went against donald trump he's packing up his box and going home. donald trump is going to motivate people in november to the races. the fact that people lose, if the house members lose it's not because of donald trump. it's because they didn't represent their voters for the last two years. >> david, your take? >> i think from what we just heard which is basically an attack from a trump supporter on paul ryan, we are seeing a real cleavage in the republican party. it goes to what donald trump's strategy was last night and why the speaker is recognizing reality this morning cutting him loose.

that strategy last night of going tabloid, of calling hillary clinton to go to jail, was doubling down on this alt-right base strategy and it made me wonder, is donald trump really in this to be president or is he trying to monetize this for some breitbart tv network? because that's who he appealed to last night. the clinton haters in his base. >> the control room just told me hillary clinton came out with a tweet on this. can you guys repeat what hillary clinton just said? if you have it, put it on the screen? hillary clinton says ryan is still endorsing trump. now, i'm not sure hillary clinton's dialed into this conference call. maybe she has some language we are not aware of yet. but it's interesting here because now the clinton campaign or democrats are in an interesting position. either they want to create -- they want to cleave donald trump from republicans to try to pick off maybe moderate republicans, or they want to tie -- >> keep tying them together. >> they want to tie them together. because they see that the house could legitimately be in play. so this has been the strategy

down ballot the whole time even for folks who have already disendorsed donald trump. they are saying this is someone who stood with him, this is someone who agrees with him on x, y, z issues because they think that's the way to go to have a chance to take become ac house. it's still a long shot but we also need to keep our eyes open here. does anyone really think this is the only tape of donald trump that's out there? >> no. >> does anyone really think there are women out there who are thinking he says these are words and not deeds? i have proof otherwise? so paul ryan and mike pence for that matter seem to be keeping their options open that if they get evidence that this was not just words but deeds, they still have an exit hatch here. >> that was irresponsible for you to say. >> lay it out. [ speaking simultaneously ] >> hang on. >> there were news reports yesterday that strongly suggested people affiliated with this "apprentice" show say they have tapes that were much worse than what we saw on friday, if

you can believe that. >> this is exactly what we're talking about. all you want people to do is talk about dirt because you don't want to talk about issues. you are not capable of dealing with the issues. >> we will take a quick break. have you seen the tapes? >> no. we are trying to get them. we offered money for them actually to level the playing field with donald trump who spent his money to shut these people up. people need to hear these tapes. >> as of now you haven't seen tapes, you are speculating. let's make that clear. >> i saw a news report yesterday with a producer who said there are such. >> we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare? that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call today to request a free decision guide.

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get a special prosecutor to look into your situation because there has never been so many lies, so much deception. there has never been anything like it. >> it's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of donald trump is not in charge of the law in our country. >> because you would be in jail. >> that was one of those moments, one of the memorable moments from last night. let's bring back the panel to discuss. john, because you would be in jail. like that answer? >> first of all, that was a joke that followed her comments. what he said was completely appropriate. her situation, it is clear it was not handled properly. there was a lot of lies. she lied to congress, she lied to the american people. there are crimes that have been committed. i'm pretty sure about that. >> did the republican fbi director ever find them? >> i wouldn't call him a republican fbi director. >> i would because that's what he is. >> that's not what he is. >> he has no integrity? what happened? >> the bottom line is there was nothing inappropriate with what he said.

he said if i -- when i am elected i will have my attorney general appoint a special prosecutor, not an inside job like this was, a special prosecutor that's going to look -- >> actually, that's not even what he said. he said throw her in jail. >> no, afterwards -- afterwards she said and he made a joke. but what he said -- >> his humor is terrible. that's not a joke. >> in your estimation it might be. but america actually enjoyed that. >> for the last poll in july, 92% of americans do believe that there was wrong committed with hillary clinton in her e-mails or there was something suspicious about it that we didn't get the full truth. the majority of americans, republicans and democrats know there was something wrong going on with those e-mails. >> the public says they are tired of hearing about this. >> wrong but not criminal. wrong is not criminal. [ speaking simultaneously ] >> there is a question out there

about it. that's what we are finding out. that's why wikileaks, every day we just had the latest batch released an hour ago talking about podesta and his e-mails in collaboration with surrogates. >> republicans have invested lots of money -- >> hold on. hold on. >> david roth is the person who has not interrupted in the last ten seconds. >> keep running down this path because there's no public interest in this except on the part of a clinton-hating cohort in the republican base that donald trump was trying to appeal to last night and de that effectively. it has no appeal to anyone else. >> we are missing that donald trump in an unprecedented way saying that his political opponent should be jailed. that has never happened in the history of american politics. it's a new low. if we didn't already have p-gate going on it would be dominating news cycles in any election an end game for a candidate. >> what you are missing is she was served with a subpoena from

congress and she then deleted -- >> no. that's the lie donald trump told last night. she wasn't served a subpoena. she didn't delete e-mails. >> then she bleached them. she bleached them. >> it has been thoroughly investigated. >> what the defense department says was entirely appropriate. the e-mails were deleted. >> you think it is appropriate that he said she should be in jail? >> that was a joke that he made. >> martha stewart went to jail for doing less than she has done. >> martha stewart is not running for president. >> who cares? if you're a criminal, you're a criminal. >> there was no criminal wrongdoing. >> i can't hear the control room. >> let's talk about taxes. >> we will talk about taxes right now. because the issue of does donald trump or has donald trump paid federal income tax or did he in the years after he claimed that loss, it came up last night. this is what he said. >> you have not answered, though, a simple question.

did you use that $916 million loss to avoid paying personal federal income taxes? >> of course i do. of course i do. and so do all of her donors or most of her donors but i will tell you that number one, i pay tremendous numbers of taxes. i absolutely used it and so did warren buffett and so did george soros. >> could be a very big admission but also, i would say on the flipside, he turned. he used the p word, different p word and turned it on her, an indictment of hillary clinton and her donors. >> he expects her to answer for not only her husband's failure but also what everyone else did on their tax returns. you can understand minimizing how many taxes have you to pay. everybody does that. but the question for the american people is what has this man actually contributed to the country. we know he hasn't been paying taxes. we know he wasn't giving any money to charity. what has he actually demonstrated in his 70 years of life that he actually cares about anything but himself and

his wealth and riches? >> scottie, you get 20 seconds. >> first, this is the same rule that hillary clinton used in 2015 with her own attacks, same as the "new york times" and others have used. the truth is, the laws are set up for them to pay as least amount as possible so they will put that money back into the economy which he did, hence why his buildings with his name on it that say trump and 32,000 employees -- >> 20 seconds is up. we got to go to break. guys, thank you so much. appreciate you being with us. >> here we go. do what's best for you. i say that to all of you but also, that is what speaker ryan has said to his members. he will no longer defend donald trump. speaker ryan says, telling republicans to focus on protecting their own races. we will have more on the breaking news coming out of capitol hill. my belly pain and constipation?

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all right. breaking news right now is, there is one heck of a conference call going on, apparently, at this moment between house speaker paul ryan and the republican members of the house of representatives about donald trump in whether or not they should continue to support him going forward. our manu raju has new details about this call. what are you learning? >> reporter: well, paul ryan, this message he's not going to campaign with donald trump, will not defend donald trump, and only worry about down ticket races and keeping that house majority. not going over well with his conference. hearing a lot of pushback from members expressing frustration to the house speaker on this call that actually doing this, by not defending and not helping donald trump, this is going to help elect hillary clinton. this is going to help turn the supreme court to the left. this is a real serious concern that a lot of members are expressing, and this conference call. now, paul ryan has actually made clear on this call and his

office says as well that he's not unendorsing donald trump at this time, but what he's saying to his members, we should worry about the congressional majority. worry about your own house seats. do everything we can next month to worry about those down ticket races and not worry about what donald trump is doing, but that is not going over well with a lot of conservative members who have a lot of donald trump supporters in their district and need donald trump to win. so just shows you guys how divisive this is, and how to deal with their nominee and paul ryan in a lot of ways is in a box here politically. >> if he wasn't before, seems he sure is now on a conference call. how to get into a box on a conference call seems tough. thank you. a lot going on. jackie kucinich, cnn politics executive eder mark preston and "washington post" national political reporter phillip rucker. thanks for being here. jackie, covered capitol hill a long time together.

what is paul ryan doing? cutting members loose? why is he getting so much blowback? your take? >> trying to split the baby here. right? has members that can't -- can't be with donald trump now. someone like a charlie dent, and other members, they need donald trump supporters. him himself was booed at that rally this weekend. sort of in an impossible situation and what should he do in this situation? obviously, having his own personal issues supporting donald trump. a lot of these member es -- seems to be two sets of members. ones that didn't want to support donald trump at all in the beginning and now have an excuse not to and those married to this once he became the nominee. >> and listening to constituents and districts. >> exactly. >> seems to me based on the reporting, this is an official cutting them loose. do what you need to do. you are not obligated to support the republican nominee. phillip rucker, read so much

great reporter over the last 24 hours, i think you wrote a great piece about it this weekend -- >> just say yes. >> -- the generation of pruk republicans now with a problem how to deal with donald trump. freeze the frame i'm right you wrote this and what this means? >> that's correct. and speaker ryan is one of them. he's one of these republican stars who really came to prominence in the obama era, who have tied themselves to donald trump. they've endorsed donald trump, said this man should be president of the united states, that he is fit to hold that office, and now given what's happening with the trump campaign, there's a lot of fear in the republican party this entire generation of stars will are tainted for cycles to come, but the problem for speaker ryan is that trump had such a strong debate last night. if trump had just imploded on that debate stage, would have been a lot easier for the republican leadership to cut him loose entirely. what he did, motivate and

galvanize the conservative base in the party and now can't abandon him. >> seems obvious paul ryan is in a difficult position. been in a difficult position the entire time, but has tried to walk a fine line. not yet there yet on the endorsement. then endorsing, then criticizing donald trump, text of racism in something donald trump said but still endorsing saying he's voting for him. trying to do it here yet again. what does it mean he's not unendorsing? there's no change in status of his endorsement quite yet, mark, at this point in the game, 30 days out. >> look, walking a fine line. what i think needs to be put into context, paul ryan's number one job, make sure there's a house majority. paul ryan's one job not to get donald trump e lect donald trump elected him -- people angry, shouting, i bet the majority saying we're doing what we want. leave it on this, talked to a

gop strategist. what do you do about trump? concerned? the gop strategist, telling our people, shelter in place. right now, pretty sure they're not sheltering in place. they're locking the door. >> on a conference, no cameras, no recording devices. does paul ryan go, you know, hide for the next 29 days? he is going to have to go in public and answer questions at some point from reporters. he'll need to explain what this means and why he's saying shelter in place but not unendorsing? >> if he's going to focus on keeping the house majority, he's going to be out on the trail. he's going to be with these guys. i'm curious maybe you have someone who says they don't want him there because of this. that will be interesting, district to district, because it is. might have someone who ap moderate yet their district is a lot of trump voters. interesting to see how this plays out for speaker ryan. >> who's trying to clear something up. >> whew! >> got a little more work to do. great to see you.

thank you so much. that is all for us today. "inside politics" with john king and i think they have a little to talk about. >> just a little bit. >> that starts right now. welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thanks for sharing time on a busy and rashable day in 2016 president's campaign. debate two -- >> fact checking because it's awfully good someone with the temperament of donald trump is not in charge of the law in our country. >> because you'd be in jail. >> donald trump played the bill clinton card before and during the debate, but in a gift to the clinton campaign, trump again downplayed his caught on tape bragging about groping and forcing himself on women. >> this was locker room talk. i'm not proud of it. i